Left Harcourt in 1993 to get my MBA. After Business School I spent 11 years owning and operating a minor league baseball team. I got out of baseball in late 2006 and rejoined the book world on the agent side. I am at Writers House, where I am now seeking submissions for myself. I'm particularly into foreign and historical thrillers and mysteries, so send me your ruthless doges and impious cardinals...and your farmhouse cozies! Give me atmosphere, let me learn something about another time or another place (or both), and kill off nasty Uncle Mortimer in the process--I'll be yours! I take middle grade and YA mystery or adventure series, but not so much fantasy, and definitely not picture books. (There are many others who specialize in these books.) And please don't send religious fiction--I don't have contacts in the Christian book market.

Neal Boulton, Angela Choi, David Raterman, Joshua Gaylord, Gerald Elias, Neil Grimmett, Sheila Boneham, Jay Bailey, Marie Manderson

Sports

South Florida Adventures magazine publisher David Raterman's FLORIDA MARLINS: A HISTORY, the first complete history of the baseball franchise from (Jeff) Abbott to (Eddie) Zosky, and A GUIDE TO SOUTH FLORIDA ADVENTURES, with recommendations and itineraries for extreme and casual sportspeople living or vacationing in South Florida, to John Byram at the University Press of Florida, in a two-book deal, by Josh Getzler at Writers House (NA).

Debut fiction

Manhattan high school teacher Joshua Gaylord's first novel, pitched as History Boys meets Blue Angel, about the intertwining -- and often darkly surprising -- relationships between the teachers and students at a school for girls, to Sally Kim at Harper, at auction, in a very nice deal, by Josh Getzler at Writers House (NA).

FOREIGN RIGHTS: FICTION
Australian and New Zealand rights to Joshua Gaylord's HUMMINGBIRDS, to Colette Vella at Pier 9, for publication in October 2009, by Angharad Kowal for Josh Getzler at Writers House.

Mystery/Crime

Associate concertmaster of the Utah Symphony Gerald Elias's DEVIL'S TRILL, a classical music-world mystery series featuring a blind, vulgar, reclusive, miserable violin master, who stands accused of theft (of a three-quarter-sized violin) and murder (of a rival) and must clear his name by journeying through the halls of wealth and across continents, to Michael Homler at Minotaur, in a two-book deal, for publication in Fall 2009, by Josh Getzler, in his first deal at Writers House, on behalf of Simon Lipskar (World).

FOREIGN RIGHTS: FICTION
Australian and New Zealand rights to Joshua Gaylord's HUMMINGBIRDS, to Colette Vella at Pier 9, for publication in October 2009, by Angharad Kowal for Josh Getzler at Writers House.

MBA, Columbia Business School; BA, U. Penn, English/Creative Writing; Radcliffe Publishing Course; Bennington Writers Workshop.

Email only please. Query Letter plus 5 or so pages. (If a chapter is 6, go for it!) Synopsis is not necessary.